‘Fact-twisting’: Hong Kong slams US report alleging erosion of human rights, autonomy
Government says it strongly disapproves of and opposes US Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s repeated attempts to interfere in city affairs
The Hong Kong government has hit back at accusations in a US congressional commission annual report that Beijing has failed to honour its international obligations to protect the city’s autonomy and human rights, saying its remarks are “fact-twisting”.
The report, released on Wednesday, also cited the legal team of jailed former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying as saying that he “spent over 23 hours a day in his cell and was deprived of independent medical care”, which the government said was “completely baseless”.
The 2025 annual report of the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) also called on Washington to impose sanctions on city officials, prosecutors, judges, police and foreign financial institutions over the “systematic erosion” of Hong Kong’s autonomy and fundamental freedoms.
In a statement released on Thursday night, the government criticised the remarks made in the report as “biased, slanderous and smearing”.
“The government strongly disapproves of and opposes the CECC’s repeated attempts to interfere in the affairs of Hong Kong through the so-called annual report and make slanderous remarks against the city, where the ‘one country, two systems’ principle is successfully implemented,” it said.
“The US is once again overriding the rule of law with politics and making unfounded and fact-twisting remarks. Such attempts to undermine the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and interfere in the city’s law-based governance are doomed to fail.”